Goodbye Ring Finger. Final Episode: "Meeting Again" [#CreativeAward2025]

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Episode 6 #MeetingAgain

"Is that all the luggage?"
"Yes."

One year after that Ise trip, we moved into an old folk house. It was being demolished due to its age at the same time the owner was retiring, so we were given the chance to renovate and live in it. Even if it's old, it's the dream home I've always wanted.

We don't need a nameplate.

Takaaki has more strength than his thin arms would suggest, and he carries the cardboard boxes with ease.

"The second floor is old too, but it has a nice feel to it."
He said, having checked the second floor a step ahead of me, "I love tatami rooms, and those lattice doors are lovely." He hands me a bottle of barley tea. I love how he never forgets to lift my spirits, saying, "That's Kazu-san's choice for you." Recently, he started calling me Kazu-san instead of Kazuhiro-san.

Takaaki works for one of our company's business partners. I'm in sales for a general construction firm, and Takaaki is an architect at a design office. I never expected to run into Takaaki, whom I've known well since college, at a place I was visiting for sales. When we reunited after so long, the silver wristwatch looked great against his tanned skin.


We were in the same design department in college, and since he was crying his eyes out because he couldn't finish his graduation thesis until the very end, I feel like I went out of my way to help my cute junior.

We are going to live here starting today.
Making the house we live in together comfortable and designing our life. That must be the most enjoyable task of all.

Ding-dong...
A low, old sound echoed. It might be a little rusty.
"Mayutan?"
"How do you always know?"
I smile bitterly and say, "Coming!" as I walk to the entrance. The wooden floorboards creak. It was my dream to live in a house with this kind of old wooden charm someday.

The scent of the wood and the creaking of the doors will eventually become familiar to us. A life enjoying that doesn't sound bad at all.

"Excuse us. It's been a while!"
Mayumi-san entered, sliding the entrance door open with a rattle.
"What a nice old house," Yuri said, carrying many paper bags.
"Welcome, both of you."
I raised my hand to greet them, and Mayumi-san showed me a long, thin white paper bag, saying, "I brought wine!" She must have bought it at a department store on her way here.
"Let's all drink!"
Mayumi-san said, lifting the bag and laughing cheerfully, but Yuri pretended to knock her on the head with her fist, saying, "Mayumi, you should reflect on that."
There is a past where Mayumi-san got dead drunk on the Ise trip and had to be carried back to the room on Takaaki's back.

The four of us, former wives and former husbands, burst into laughter. I never thought a day like this would come. Even though the two of us, and the two of them, haven't changed.

"I'm thinking of renovating it and building it up little by little. It might be old and inconvenient for now."
"I think it will develop character as we live in it. I've worked on renovation projects for work before, too."
Unlike remodeling, which aims to bring an existing building closer to a new one, renovation refers to adding to what is already there to increase its value.
I think we will take care of the house and our lives, shaping them to become something better.

I wonder if you might think that this is also a possible way for a couple to be.

The Ise trip concluded with the wives' shocking confession. The two of them had actually been about to run off, waving and saying, "Well, thanks! Call me again! Don't catch a cold!" They said they wouldn't make it in time for their train.

Could we have said anything to them?
Hearing the fact that the two of them were in love with each other, saying "I see," "That's surprising," or "Us too," all felt cheap.
If I said something like, "I understand," I feel like Yuri would get angry at me, saying, "Only the two of us can understand our relationship!"

While I was dawdling and thinking about it, the two of them left quite easily.

The two of us ex-husbands were left behind, and although I went back into work mode with meetings and such afterward, nothing was sinking in.
The matching dolphin straps seemed to be laughing at us.

"Oh, Kuro!"
Mayumi-san was the first to discover the cat that was already in our house. Kuro and Goma, the black cats Takaaki had been keeping at his parents' house where he used to live. Both are female. They are dignified black cats, and I had only just met them a little while ago. They were clinging tightly to Takaaki. It seems like it will take some time for them to get used to me.
"Mayutan, you can tell Kuro and Goma apart, right?"
"Eh, they look identical, but they're both different."
I can't tell the two black cats apart at all, but it seems Mayumi-san can. I was about to get my claws out, meow, but she didn't even care.
"I just couldn't bear to be separated from Kuro and Goma. I thought maybe we could live together if it were this house."
Takaaki placed Kuro (or maybe it was Goma) on his lap and started giving her treats.

"Alright, I've divided them onto plates. I borrowed the kitchen."
Yuri called out from the kitchen. It seems she made the food at home and brought it over.
Yuri rented a kitchen studio in Tokyo and finally started working as a cooking teacher as a side job. She says that someday she wants to quit her main job and make a living solely from this.
The taste always sinks in gently and makes me feel warm inside. The vegetables and the dashi broth melt together and intertwine. It's no wonder, having learned from a master of Japanese cuisine. Thinking that I was eating this every night, I must have been a spoiled man.

"I love Yuri's cooking. It's a creative dish today!"
Mayumi-san cheers. They say the two of them have now rented a 1LDK apartment near a large park. They are each away for work during the day, but it's their daily routine to enjoy movies and manga together at night.

I think that Yuri, too, is perhaps less obsessed with wanting children than when she was with me, and has become free from the constraints she placed on herself.
Her heart must have become lighter.
It's frustrating, but she is much more beautiful than when she was with me.
There is an energy that only someone who has something stable to protect and be protected by can radiate.

"But I'm dissatisfied that I can't keep animals. If the second floor of this house is empty, maybe I should just move in."
"Hey, hey. That wouldn't be any different from before."
"I would be very happy to have you. If it's Mayutan and Yuri-san."
I laughed. We played Jenga after the meal, and the room, which wasn't very tidy to begin with, became even more scattered. Saying "oh well," the four of us ended up cleaning it up together.

It was a mess, but the meeting of the four of us, who are no longer a married couple, continued until dinner.

It's fine for a marriage to be a mess.
There's no need to be perfect.

As expected, Mayumi-san ended up getting completely wasted.

After a week of living together, I finally managed to tell Kuro and Goma apart.
Goma actually has a small white patch on her belly. However, to verify that, I have to flip her over. Since I, an old man, am always looking at their bellies, naturally, the cats grew to dislike me. For some reason, Takaaki said he could tell the two apart from the beginning. Why is that?

"Kazu-san."
I hear the sound of shaving from the washroom.
"What is it?"
"Shall we go look at rings sometime?"
"No, that's embarrassing."
"You could go with Yuri-san, but you can't go with me?"
He pouted. I laughed and brushed it off, saying, "Maybe another time."

I stare at my left ring finger, which remains empty.

The form of a marriage is free.
Even without being bound by institutions, you should just be with the person you want to be with. I believe the essential thing is to think about who you want to live your life with.

Whether that person is a man or a woman.

I want to let this house feel the breath of two people.
I want to let it feel the weight. Let's carve the history of a new family into this old house.

I also think that perhaps that is what it means to be a married couple, and what it means to live together.

"Takaaki"
"Yes?"
"Let's make a promise."

End

Thank you for staying with me for so long.
It continues to the prologue. Please enjoy one more episode.

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